Improving Patient Experience Scores Using Simultaneous Interpretation on Family-Centered Rounds

Area of Science:

• Healthcare delivery
• Medical interpretation
• Patient communication

Background:

• Non-English speaking patients face communication barriers in healthcare.
• Equitable patient-provider communication is crucial for quality care.
• No standard exists for inpatient medical interpretation during family-centered rounds (FCR).

Purpose of the Study:

• To implement and evaluate simultaneous, in-person interpretation for Spanish-speaking families during FCR.
• To hypothesize improved patient satisfaction with care through enhanced communication.

Main Methods:

• Implemented Spanish Equipment-Assisted Simultaneous Medical Interpretation (EASMI) on FCR.
• Analyzed Child Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (Child HCAHPS) scores pre- and post-implementation.
• Surveyed medical teams and interviewed Spanish-speaking families on interpretation satisfaction.

Main Results:

• Spanish-speaking families showed significant improvements in Child HCAHPS communication scores compared to English-speaking families.
• Top box scores for doctors explaining things clearly improved from 58% to 95% for Spanish speakers (P = .001).
• Medical teams reported high satisfaction with EASMI, citing reduced errors and increased family participation.

Conclusions:

• EASMI significantly improved communication domain scores and satisfaction for Spanish-speaking families and medical teams.
• EASMI offers a novel, equitable method for interpretation during FCR.
• This approach enhances the quality of care for diverse patient populations.